


Breaker of Locks, Mender of Hearts

by roseweb



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Being an Asshole, Akechi Goro Needs a Hug, Akechi Goro is Bad at Feelings, Akechi Goro was a child actor, Alternate Universe - No Metaverse (Persona 5), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Banter, But it's shut down right away don't worry, Canon compliant Ryuji slander, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I love you Ryuji I'm so sorry, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, It happens... in their dreams, It'll make sense once you get there, Kurusu Akira is hopelessly in love, M/M, Nightmares, Not Beta Read, POV Third Person, Referenced Suicide Attempt, Slow Burn, Soulmates, Soulmates Share Dreams, Soulmates Share Pain, Well as slow burn as a soulmates au can be, brief suicide idealization, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-23 01:00:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30047493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseweb/pseuds/roseweb
Summary: Akira Kurusu likes to believe that his soulmate is a good person.In a world where dreams are a shared experience between soulmates, Akira has only seen his supposed lover a handful of times; each moment brief enough to make Akira question if it had truly occurred.Despite this, he has managed to come to a few deductions about his soulmate. He keeps a list of what he knows in the real world, although he would never admit it.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Facts About My ♡ Soulmate ♡- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. My soulmate is male.2. My soulmate has hair the color of a chestnut.3. My soulmate’s hair is grown to his shoulders.4. My soulmate’s hair looks soft.5. My soulmate’s hair would look good in a ponytail. ;-)6. M̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶l̶m̶a̶t̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶i̶- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Maybe Akira Kurusu likes his soulmate’s hair a little too much.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Kitagawa Yusuke/Sakamoto Ryuji (implied), Niijima Makoto/Okumura Haru (mentioned), Suzui Shiho/Takamaki Ann (mentioned)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 64





	Breaker of Locks, Mender of Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there!!! Be sure to read the tags before reading because this fic will deal with heavy themes at some points in later chapters. :)

***

Akira Kurusu likes to believe that his soulmate is a good person.

In a world where dreams are a shared experience between soulmates, Akira has only seen his supposed lover a handful of times; each moment brief enough to make Akira question if it had truly occurred.

When night time falls and sleep steadily overtakes, there is a choice to be made. Each soul will awaken in front of a front desk, residing in the intersection of a long hallway where two doors are present. Each door inhabits opposite sides of the passageway.

Once the threshold is crossed, the soul will find themself in a large room filled with an assortment of seats, accompanied by a sizable screen. Many say it resembles a movie theater.

The soul will originally find itself to be drawn to its own room, to view its own dreams. Over time, however, one may feel the need to expand their horizons and visit the opposite room.

Akira Kurusu fell into that group rather well.

He never particularly enjoyed watching his own dreams, they made him feel frustrated, lonely, and dull. Boredom overtakes Akira rather quickly, therefore he has a knack for uncharted land. He adores the thrill of the unknown, and his soulmate is about as obscure as they come.

In the fleeting moments Akira managed to catch a glimpse of his soulmate (or the back of his head, really), he was gone as quickly as he came. Despite this, he has managed to come to a few deductions about his soulmate. He keeps a list of what he knows in the real world, although he would never admit it.

  
  


_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

_Facts About My ♡ Soulmate ♡_

_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

  * _My soulmate is male._


  * _My soulmate has hair the color of a chestnut._


  * _My soulmate’s hair is grown to his shoulders._


  * _My soulmate’s hair looks soft._


  * _My soulmate’s hair would look good in a ponytail. ;-)_


  * _M̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶l̶m̶a̶t̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶i̶_



_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

  
  
  


Maybe Akira Kurusu likes his soulmate’s hair a little too much.

  
  
  


The first time Akira ventured to the opposite end of the hallway, he was surprised to find the door had been chained shut, complemented with a hefty lock.

_Maybe the lock is just for show?_ He had thought.

The lock, in fact, was not for show. The endless jiggles of the doorknob to no avail had proven that.

By the time Akira had decided breaking and entering into his soulmate’s dream state wasn’t particularly the most _intelligent_ idea he has had, Akira was woken with a start to his phone alarm blaring.

With a groan Akira jostled out of bed, opting to get ready for school. Not without documenting his new discovery first, of course.

  
  
  


_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

_Facts About My ♡ Soulmate ♡_

_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

  * _My soulmate is male._


  * _My soulmate has hair the color of a chestnut._


  * _My soulmate’s hair is grown to his shoulders._


  * _My soulmate’s hair looks soft._


  * _My soulmate’s hair would look good in a ponytail. ;-)_


  * _M̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶l̶m̶a̶t̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶i̶_


  * _My soulmate is secretive._



_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

  
  
  


***

“For real?! His door was chained shut?!”

Akira gave his buddy, Ryuji, a nod of confirmation as they approached the gates of their high school.

Ryuji has been Akira’s best friend ever since his first day at Shujin Academy. Ryuji was the first person to see him as something other than his criminal record, and the first to believe him when he denied the accusations.

“Damn, he sounds like a major asshole, dude!” Ryuji halted his steps to take a drink of his canned soda.

“Or he has trust issues. I can’t really fault him on that one.” Akira stops to take a glance at the time. 5 minutes until class starts. “Plus, he’s pretty. So it’s okay.”

“Nope, nuh-uh dude!” Ryuji grabs ahold of Akira’s wrist and pulls him towards the school, knocking him out of whatever soulmate-thought-spiral he caught himself in this time. “I am _NOT_ listening to you go on and on about your soulmate’s hair, not again! If I have to hear about how you want to run your fingers through his hair _one more time_ I _will_ lose it.”

Akira tried (and failed) to suppress a laugh as Ryuji practically dragged him into Shujin Academy. Realizing this is the perfect opportunity to ask about Ryuji’s soulmate, Akira pressed onward with a barrage of questions.

“Hey, you’ve contacted your soulmate before, right?”

“Mm-hm.”

“How did that happen? What’re they like?”

Ryuji took a moment to reply and dropped Akira’s wrist. “He’s a total weirdo. He walked into my theater and started criticizing the interior design of it or whatever, saying it’s not ‘aesthetically pleasing.’ Like I have control over that! I didn’t create the damn thing!”

“Wow, harsh, Ryuji. Technically speaking though, you did create it, just subconsciously.”

“Come on bro… You’re supposed to be on my side here,” Ryuji sighed with a pout, “He doesn’t seem like a bad dude, though. He’s just super out there. Maybe once we meet for real we’ll click or something.”

Akira hummed in response as he found himself in front of his classroom.

“Ah, looks like we arrived just in time. You should probably start heading towards your class, Ryuji.”

“Yeah yeah, I know. Makoto will have my head if I’m late to class again.” The blonde boy shivers at the memory of the student council president’s wrath. “Oh yeah, before I go, I’ve been thinking.”

“How rare, are you feeling okay?”

‘Dude, shut up! I’m trying to help you!”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it.” Akira was met with an unamused expression plastered on Ryuji’s face. “Please, go on.”

With a huff, Ryuji continued.

“Well, you said your soulmate might have trust issues, right? Maybe you could give him a reason to trust you. You know, by not breaking and entering and shit. That’d probably screw up everything before you even get the chance to shoot your shot.”

“Get him to trust me…?” Akira considered this as he stared up at the ambient lights. “But, how would I do that if he doesn’t want to talk to me, and never leaves his theater for that matter?”

“Maybe you could leave a note on his door before he gets a chance to arrive? Saying something along the lines of ‘Hey, I want to talk to you, do you want to meet in my theater?’ It might make him feel more safe.”

“But I don't want to meet at my theater. I want to meet in his.”

“Well, sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the greater good, dude.” Ryuji gave him a comforting pat on the back before heading towards his own classroom. “Well, looks like it’s time to bounce. See ya, dude!”

Akira made a mental note to buy Ryuji lunch as a thank you.

***

Taking Ryuji’s advice to heart, Akira took the first spare moment he could to take a nap.

Hopefully Kawakami won’t be too angry with him.

Akira made a beeline towards the front desk and began rummaging through the assortment of files.

Truth be told, Akira has looked through those files an abundance of times. Way more than he could count. Afterall, he was desperate for any sort of information about his soulmate. The files had no identifying information, of course. Most of them held information on soulmates and how they functioned.

He did find one piece of interesting information though, the initials of his soulmate. G.A.

He’d spent countless hours scouring Shujin’s rosters upon that discovery to no avail. Nobody with the initials ‘G.A.’ existed at Shujin Academy, at least not with chestnut brown hair.

He’d considered requesting help from Futaba at that point. With her hacking skills he could surely acquire the records of schools all across Japan.

_That might be pushing it a bit._ He had decided. _Normal people don’t stalk their soulmates._

  
  
  


After pushing aside mountains of papers, Akira found what he was looking for. Some sticky notes and a pen.

He doesn’t have all the time in the world, after all, he is still in class. He could be woken up at any time. With this in mind, Akira quickly scribbled out a message.

  
  
  


_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

_Hey! I’m interested in meeting you._

_Do you want to meet at my theater some time?_

_Looking forward to it!_

_-Your Soulmate <3 ;-) _

_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

  
  
  


Akira internally cringed at his use of the word ‘meet’ twice in a row, but stuck the note to his soulmate’s door anyway.

***

By the time sundown arrived, Akira was ecstatic. How could he not be? He was so thrilled about possibly meeting his soulmate that he had difficulty falling asleep.

_How ironic,_ he had thought.

To his utmost joy, he could see a yellow card stuck to his own door. He promptly rushed over, but upon further inspection, the note was nothing to get aflutter about.

  
  
  


_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

_I don’t have time for such frivolous things._

_Don’t contact me again._

_-G.A_

_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

  
  
  


To say Akira was agitated would be an understatement. What could he possibly be doing wrong? Why doesn’t his soulmate want to meet him?

His eyes wandered down to the carpet, only to be met with bits and pieces of yellow paper. It doesn’t take long for two and two to add together in Akira’s head. That was _his_ note.

A rational thinker would accept the obvious rejection at face value, and be on their merry way.

Good thing Akira isn’t a rational thinker.

Without a second thought, Akira marched towards his soulmate’s door and gave it a rather loud knock.

“Hey uh, what the fuck?” Akira called out. “I understand if you don’t want to meet me, but there’s no need to be so damn _rude_ about it.”

Akira was, unsurprisingly, met with silence.

“I know you’re in there. You always are. Answer me.”

Once again, nothing.

“You know the trash can is right there, right?” Akira pointed at the trash can next to his soulmate’s door, despite nobody being around to see it. “You didn’t need to leave the shredded evidence behind at my door. Just throw it away like a normal person.”

Nothing.

“What were you trying to do, make a point? It wasn’t a very good point. It just made you look like a huge asshole.”

Akira soon realized this one-sided conversation was going nowhere. He had hoped that provoking him might have some sort of effect, but once again, he was met with silence.

Defeatedly, Akira began the walk of shame back to his theater. That is, until he had a grand idea.

_If my soulmate’s going to push me away, I might as well go out with a bang, right?_

The black-haired boy scrambled to the front desk and picked his weapon of choice: the tallest stack of sticky notes he could get his hands on. He rushed to his soulmate’s door without a hint of delay.

Starting at the top of the door, he began to lay the sticky notes out. He made sure to leave space between each note in order to ensure they couldn’t all be pulled off at once. He even went as far to lift up some of the chains and place notes under them.

_Maybe I should place notes on top of the chains too?_

So he did.

_Maybe the lock too, for good measure._

Who was Akira to say no to the voice in his head? Afterall, it was right for the most part.

After the first few lines Akira found himself mindlessly humming a tune he enjoyed. He hadn’t intended to make his presence known to the other boy once again, but it seems his brain had other plans.

_Now that I think about it, that might make this better._ Akira had thought.

_He’s well aware I’m here._

_He must be dying to know what I’m doing._

_It must be driving him to the brink of insanity._

With this in mind, Akira found the resolve to continue the task at hand. He couldn’t hold back the smirk blooming on his lips.

_This is going to take a while,_ He had thought, _but it will surely be worth it._

  
  


By the time Akira completed his charade, he had very little time to admire his own handiwork. In the real world, his cat had decided it was time for Akira to wake up.

Akira opened his eyes to see Morgana stomping across his body without a care in the world.

“Come on, Morgana. It’s Sunday. I legally don’t have to be awake right now.”

“Mrroww!”

_Well, who can argue with that._

At least this gives Akira the chance to update his list.

  
  
  


_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

_Facts About My ♡ Soulmate ♡_

_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

  * _My soulmate is male._


  * _My soulmate has hair the color of a chestnut._


  * _My soulmate’s hair is grown to his shoulders._


  * _My soulmate’s hair looks soft._


  * _My soulmate’s hair would look good in a ponytail. ;-)_


  * _M̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶l̶m̶a̶t̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶i̶_


  * _My soulmate is secretive._


  * _My soulmate’s an asshole. (Ryuji was right!!!) >:-(_



_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_

  
  
  


_***_

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!!! Thank you for reading my fic thus far! It's one of my first ones so don't be too mean please!!!!
> 
> If you'd like to be twitter mutuals, my @ is missroseweb :)


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